Adrian Vernon Fish (b. 1956) — A Short Prayer for the Bishop of Greenland (1995) for organ
“A Short Prayer for the Bishop of Greenland” (1995) was composed for the Rev. Sofie Petersen on the occasion of her enthronement (May 1995) as the Lutheran Bishop of Greenland. Petersen was the first Inuit bishop and the second female bishop in the Danish Lutheran church.
Adrian Vernon Fish (b. 1956) is an English composer with particularly strong ties to the country of Greenland. That country’s ice vastnesses have been a major source of inspiration for Fish, who has undertaken many concert tours and has composed many pieces inspired by Greenlandic themes. Fish was a student of Herbert Howells and Alan Ridout and has composed numerous works in all forms including twelve symphonies. His music is intentionally very diverse in style: displaying insight, keen sensibilities, and eclectic taste. Many of his concert works of the 1990s in particular owe influence to music of American composer Alan Hovhaness, who described Fish’s music as having “an innate spirituality.”